Visualizza questa pagina in Italiano

HOME PAGE

Legend and translations

AUS - AUSTRALIA
BATHURST, MOUNT PANORAMA
Description	Street circuit inaugurated at Easter 1938. The circuit was unchanged until 1986, when Mike Burgmann was killed (as 4 drivers and 2 spectators from 1949 and 1970) on a hump on Conrod Straight. Fot this reason in 1987 a new chicane (The Chase) was added. Part of the circuit, from just above the Bathurst Light Car Club premises near the top of Conrod Straight, to Skyline, is also used as a hillclimb. Names of distinctive points listed here are the traditional or ’generic’ ones. They may vary from time to time depending upon the depth of sponsors’ pockets. For more info, see Mark Taylor’s Guide, bottom of this page
Location	Bathurst NSW - New South Wales
Location	Bathurst, 210 km - 130 mi West from Sydney
Latitude - Longitude	- 33°26'53"     +149°33'18" -33.448056     149.555
UTM Coordinates	X = 737494.907  -  Y = 6296119.886  -  Zone 55H
Aerial photo / Map (*)	Google Maps  -    Bing Maps  -    Flash Earth  -    NearMap
Altitude AMSL (approx)	700 m - 2297 ft    (approx)
Inauguration	April 17th 1938
Closing
Designer
Sources and links (Translation) (**)	(1) (page 20) Author: Peter Higham, Bruce Jones - Published by: Andre Deutsch - year: 1999 - ISBN: 0-233-99619-2 Description (2) mail, note Mail from Mark Taylor dated February 24th 2005 (3) Forum Forum Oceania Australia Mount Panorama [ITA] [ENG] (4) www.hsv.com.au/racing/tracks/bathurst97_map.htm (5) www.racingcircuits.net Motor Racing Circuits Database (6) Autosprint 45/1985 (page 47) (7) Autosprint 13/1987 (page 23) A new chicane will be introduced and the circuit will be repaved (8) www.touringcartimes.com/news.php?id=3868 Proposed permanent circuit [Publishing date: August 25th 2009]

(*) NOTE: a complete and detailed view of the circuit can be found (if available) on Street View by Google Maps and/or Bird's Eye and 3D views by Bing Maps for Enterprise (former Microsoft Virtual Earth): both can be reached using their own link in Aerial photo / Map cell.

(**) For on-line not-English speaking sources, click on each small flag and you open the corresponding Google Translator page with automatic translation.

Mount Panorama
Description
Years	1938÷1986
Direction	Anticlockwise
Proposal	NO
No longer operational	YES
Car Circuit	YES
Motorbike circuit
Type	Road course
Inauguration	April 17th 1938
Closing	1986
Last update of this page	May 27th 2007
Info last update
Designer
Distinctive points	Pit Straight - Hell Corner - Mountain Straight - Quarry Bend - The Cutting - Griffin’s Mount - Reid Park - Sulman Park - McPhillamy Park - Skyline - The Esses - The Dipper - Forrest’s Elbow - Conrod Straight - Murray’s Corner
length	6236  m	20459  ft	3.875  mi	Official track length up to 1972	(1)
length	6172  m	20248  ft	3.835  mi	Official track length from 1973 (track unchanged, but remeasured)	(1)

Mount Panorama
Description
Years	1987÷...
Direction	Anticlockwise
Proposal	NO
No longer operational
Car Circuit	YES
Motorbike circuit
Type	Road course
Inauguration	1987
Closing
Last update of this page	May 27th 2007
Info last update
Designer
Distinctive points	Pit Straight - Hell Corner - Mountain Straight - Quarry Bend - The Cutting - Griffin’s Mount - Reid Park - Sulman Park - McPhillamy Park - Skyline - The Esses - The Dipper - Forrest’s Elbow - Conrod Straight - The Chase - Murray’s Corner
length	6215  m	20391  ft	3.862  mi		(1)
length	6200  m	20341  ft	3.853  mi		(4)
length	6213  m	20384  ft	3.861  mi		(5)

Mount Panorama
SORRY, SOME DATA ARE NOT TRANSLATED YET
Description	A
Years
Direction	Anticlockwise
Proposal	YES
Proposal not developed
Car Circuit	YES
Motorbike circuit
Type	Permanent
Inauguration	1987
Closing
Last update of this page	December 19th 2009
Info last update
Designer
Distinctive points
length	2500  m	8202  ft	1.553  mi		(8)

Latitude - Longitude: - 33°26'53", +149°33'18"
If the aerial photo is not visible, you have to zoom out by clicking (maybe more then once) button ’-’ in top left corner

---

MARK TAYLOR’S GUIDE

By Mark Taylor and reproduced here with his kind permission. Translation into Italian is mine.

Download this text in PDF format (23 KB)

If you did not grow up with Mt Panorama; if you were not there when real racing cars raced on a narrow strip of patchwork-quilt bitumen wandering among the trees; there is one thing you must do to try to understand the aura about this place. You must buy (if you still can) John Medley’s book ’Bathurst - Cradle of Australian Motor Racing’, published in 1997 by Turton and Armstrong. To petrol-heads, ’Mt Panorama’ and ’Bathurst’ are synonymous. Geographically, Mt Panorama is a high hill in the western foothills of the Blue Mountains, down one side of which was draped in 1937 a 6.176 km racing circuit. Bathurst is Australia’s third city, founded in 1815 by Governor Lachlan Macquarie. It nestles at the foot of the hill, sleepy yet prosperous in a genteel sort of a way. Part of its prosperity is due to the circuit, which brings thousands of visitors a year to the city. The first race meeting held here was a combined motorcycle and car meeting at Easter in 1938, before the circuit had been sealed. In what was to become the traditional format of Easter race meetings, the bikes raced on Friday and Saturday, the cars on Sunday and Monday. How fitting that the bikes were first, as they had raced in the Bathurst area, on such circuits as Vale and Peel, long before Mt Panorama was even thought of. Even the ridge along the top of the mountain, in those days, carried the prosaic name of Bald Hills! For the first time that I know of, both Australian Grands Prix (car and motorcycle) were held on the same circuit on the one weekend. The car Grand Prix was graced by the presence of English amateur driver Peter Whitehead, driving his ERA. Whitehead won the race. The car GP returned three more times to Mt Panorama - 1947 (on a now-sealed surface, and again conjunction with the motorcycle GP), 1952 and 1958. Subsequent AGPs in NSW were at Warwick Farm until it closed, then Oran Park, both of which had the advantage of proximity to Sydney. Then, in 1963, came the event which was to put Mt Panorama firmly on the world motor racing map - the 500 mile (later 1000 km) touring car race. Its original home at Phillip Island having been pounded to smithereens, the race came to Mt Panorama to stay. This race led eventually to the only layout change in the circuit’s history. In 1986 Mike Burgmann was killed when his car hit a pedestrian bridge abutment after aviating over the bottom hump on Conrod Straight. It was not the first fatality at this point. Jack Johnson (1949), two spectators (1955), Reg Smith (1960), Bevan Gibson (1969) and Tom Sulman (1970) had preceded him. Race organisers were determined that it would be the last. The hump had been shaved in response to the previous accidents. The approach this time was the marvellous Chase - a blindingly fast right hander leading into a left-right over the crest, where the car goes light between them. Part of the circuit, from just above the Bathurst Light Car Club premises near the top of Conrod Straight, to Skyline, is also used as a hillclimb. Apart from annual rounds of the NSW Hillclimb Championship, the Australian Hillclimb Championship has been held here five times - 1956, 1967, 1976, 1997 and 2000. Sadly, however, the motorcycle races seem to have left Mt Panorama forever. Jim Scaysbrook has now written the story of the bike races. It is a story worth telling!

Updates
Date	Track layout	Years	Description by	Map by	Thanks to	Note
December 19th 2009	Mount Panorama		Guido de Carli		Quintin03	Update	Description
May 27th 2007			Guido de Carli			Update	Description with map
August 4th 2005			Guido de Carli			Update	Description
March 15th 2005			Guido de Carli			Update	Description
March 5th 2005			Guido de Carli			Update	Description
March 4th 2005			Guido de Carli		Mark Taylor	Update	Description
March 1st 2005			Guido de Carli	Guido de Carli		New	Description with map
December 5th 2004			Guido de Carli	Guido de Carli		New	Description with map
Not all eventual updates issued in last years are already visible in this list

Webmaster:
Guido de Carli
  
(Italiano - English - Español)

 HOME PAGE

DISCLAIMER (In Italian)